During the summer I usually go abroad to train in my profession as a dance instructor. I spend two weeks in Herräng, Sweden, take a break, and then go to the Masters Swing Jam in London, one of my favorite dance camps, to teach in my particular genre of swing - the Lindy Hop. It's there that I partner and perform with Frankie Manning, the legendary father of swing dance.

Frankie topped the lineup of teachers at both international camps. Teachers and students attended from almost every country in Europe, and nations reaching as far as Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.

This summer I was struck again by Frankie's uncanny vitality, strength, and creativity on the dance floor, looking and dancing more like a fit 45 than the 85 that he is. Frankie has lived a remarkable life, impacting the swing world like no one else. His original choreography has been documented on the movie screen, TV, and stage, giving us a lifetime of unique steps for the social and professional dancer. But the thing that strikes me the most about him is that he has danced through time, the entire Swing Era, then and now, creating history, and leaving us a remarkable living heritage.

Usually people don't realize that most of the steps Frankie teaches are his. We are so used to a teacher teaching what they have been taught. We forget that Frankie is the original creator behind most of the steps we know of as "swing" today, and yesterday! And each step has its own interesting story: Scarecrow Charleston, Ride the Pony, and Mini-dip, to name a very few, not to mention most of the air steps, or aerials as we call them today, such as Around the Back, Russian Kicks, and more.

For all the good teachers out there - hot, cool, hip and young - Frankie still has it over them all. His classes in Sweden were exceptionally good: full of steps that were inventive, and challenging, yet eminently leadable and joyful to dance socially. He manages to create danceable steps - fun, creative, and playful footwork, which is also straightforward and dazzling.

Frankie is coming to Portland and Eugene, November 10 through 13, to teach new steps at an intermediate Lindy workshop. He'll appear at the Crystal Ballroom to perform the Shim Sham and the Lindy Chorus, and to teach on November 14. Often I schedule a Story Time during the workshop to allow students to ask questions and get to know Frankie on a more personal level. You might ask him to tell the stories behind some of the steps he has created and will be teaching while he is here. He has a very unique approach to creating steps, taking from everyday mundane events, and turning them into treasures. For example, on a particular day many years ago, while Frankie was traveling from one gig to the next in a bus, he looked out over miles of cornfields dotted with scarecrows and came up with the idea for the wonderfully floppy and humorous Scarecrow Charleston.

Frankie once told me that he preferred Count Basie's music for dancing because it was simple, and it really swung. He said that the Count would throw out a lot of complicated riffs and fluff until he reached the heart of a song. Frankie is the choreographer's version of the Count. He is a master choreographer, and by choreography, I do not mean a long, complicated series of unleadable steps suited more for performance than social dance. I mean choreography in the artistic sense of the word: In the art of dance, Frankie creates original, straightforward steps that really swing, just as he did 64 years ago during the hey day of the Swing Era. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from a master step-maker dancing though time, our time now.